56 



THE FERN BULLETIN 



winter sets in but their brown stalks frequently never- 

 theless remain standing long after. — C. F. Saunders in 

 Linnaean Fern Bulletin, Vol. 4. 



PTERIDOGRAPHIA. 



A New Fern Pest. — According to the British 

 Fern Gazette a new pest threatens the specimens of 

 those who collect living plants. This is the larva of 

 a small weevil which gets into the stipes of the ferns 

 and burrowing downward into the heart of the rhi- 

 zomes soon cause the death of the plant. The weevil 

 is of Australian origin, probably introduced into Bri- 

 tain with imported plants. Its scientific cognomen is 

 Syagrius intrudens. At first its depredations were 

 confined to ferns under glass, but more recently it has 

 taken to the ferns in the wild state. This, however, 

 is not the only enemy of the ferns that British grow- 

 ers have to contend with. Another small beetle 

 known as the vine weevil (Otiorhyncus sulcatus) is 

 fond of the plants both in the adult and larval stages, 

 but the newcomer has already developed a reputation 

 for destructiveness that places it first as a fern pest. 



Walking Fern and Lime. — Nearly everybody 

 who cultivates the walking fern (Camptosorus rhizo- 

 phy llus) , thinks it necessary to supply it with a 

 quantity of old mortar, quick-lime or pieces of lime- 

 stone under the impression that the fern cannot live, 

 or at least cannot thrive without a considerable 

 amount of calcium in the soil. As a matter of fact it 

 lias been reported on sandstone, shale, gneiss and 

 granite and may possibly grow on others. Its noticed 

 preference for limestone is apparently not due to its 

 dependence on calcium but rather to the fact that it is 

 more nearly adjusted to the plant covering of lime- 



